Faludi's The Power Of Context

As Americans, living in a egotistical and self centered society, we often think that we are the best, the top 1 percent in every aspect. However, When compared to other countries of the world, America is ranked 14th in education, 44th in health care efficiency, and 101th in peace. But it ranks first in incarceration, 2nd in ignorance, and 3rd in global competitiveness. One can see how the rankings that America is top in are those that promote violence in one way or another. In the book Violence and Culture: A Cross-Cultural and Interdisciplinary Approach by Jack David Eller, the author discusses violence in American society in one of his chapters. In this chapter, he mentions some social characteristics that represents and plays a role in

Humans in society are like musicians in an orchestra. Solo, their parts sound odd and out of place, lacking the harmonies mindfully composed for the rest of the orchestra. Humans are interdependent, social creatures by nature. We rely on each other to survive. We rely on each other to do jobs that might require a certain skill set or jobs that we might not have time to do ourselves. We even rely on each other to bring a sense of familiarity and security to our communities just by knowing one another. If we all remained anonymous, then we could not rely on each other to satisfy these vital societal needs. Scott Russell Sanders, in his essay “The Common Life”, states that the more people in a community who prefer to live isolated and reclusive lives, the more susceptible the community is to a division that impedes its ability to live together, interact synergistically, and thrive. He correctly believes that this division can lead to a total “breakdown” in society.

People might become accustomed by the violence going on around them in order to keep themselves sane and not paranoid, but that does not necessarily mean that they see it as being correct. Back to the Goetz incident, the citizens in New York might have seen Goetz as a hero. Some citizens of New York City would say that Goetz had “fulfilled the secret fantasy of every New Yorker who had ever been mugged or intimidated or assaulted…” (Gladwell 150). However, there is a massive difference between committing a crime and wanting to commit a crime. On certain occasions, people want to do something they cannot. These citizens might have wanted to do what Goetz did, but deep in their conscience these New Yorkers knew it was wrong. Although these New Yorkers were living in New York during a time where it’s violence epidemic reached an all time high their conscience did not get changed or altered because of the violence. Loffreda talks about a student, she talked to in which after “seeing students cry in one of his classes as they discussed Matt’s death, he had what he called, a real breakthrough: he felt a little sick, he told [Loffreda], that he had thought things about gays that the two killers had probably been thinking about Shepard” (Loffreda 248). Although this student, whose name was not used, might have not agreed or like LGBT people, deep down in his conscience he viewed that his

Humans have a natural tendency to conform to each other; they strive to fit in with their community and to blend in with the crowd, undoubtedly because modern society seems to have put everyone on a leash. Its harsh judgment and constant pressure forces everyone to follow each other around like sheep — compliant — staying in line in fear of the repercussions. Likewise, in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, and “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr., conformity is an ongoing theme that causes the entire community to isolate Hester in The Scarlet Letter, believe in witchcraft in The Crucible, and discriminate against African Americans in “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. Hawthorne, Miller, and King all show the effects of the pressure and corruptions in the community, as well as the punishments the individuals receive as a result of conformity. In all three pieces of writing, the authors describe the community as a powerful oppression that forces people to be obedient, simultaneously asserting that conformity ultimately leads to consequences in both the community and the individual.

According to Stanhope and Lancaster (2008) defines a community as: “A social group determined by geographic boundaries and/or common values and interests. Its members know and interact with one another. It functions within a particular social structure and exhibits and creates norms, values, and social institutions” (World Health Organization [WHO], 1974, pg. 7).

A community is a group of people who live in the same area, interact with each other, and share certain norms and values. A community is defined as a locality-based entity, composed of systems of formal organizations reflecting societal institutions, informal groups, and aggregates that are interdependent and whose function or expressed intent is to meet a wide variety of collective needs (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2012).

The cognitive abilities and processes have a massive influence on personal behavior adjustments while physical surroundings also active and influence individuals’ decisions making. Those decisions making always include the discrimination about racism, sexism, capitalism and classism. Individuals’ behaviors are articulated by what they perceive and what is stored in their memories, however, with the changes of the environment and with the time flows, those perceptions that stored in people’s mind might be changed. In “The Power of Context”, Malcolm Gladwell depicts that people’s characters are not only related to the cognitive association, but also affected by the physical surroundings because things that exist in individual’s residence also shape who they are. Similarly, Leslie Bell in her article, “Hard To Get: Twenty-Something Women and the Paradox of Sexual Freedom”, discusses that because of the change of physical surroundings, women now have more courages to express what they want, especially the needs of sexual activities, but the cognitive associations of the public would bring women who have desire of sex prejudgments that are harmful to their dignities. Similarly, Michael Moss, the author of “The Extraordinary Science of Additive Junk Food”, talks about the extraordinary science behind tastes and junk food addictions, and how multinational food companies struggle to maintain their "stomach shares" in the face of mounting evidence that their foods are driving the

In contrast, even though one was once intended to commit a crime, if one is at the place where is comfortable and tidy, one cannot commit a violent act easily and actually begins to think again about breaking a law. This theory flows into Gladwell’s argument about the Tipping Points that forces people toward violence. Gladwell believes that the little things around people can act as catalysts and significantly change the outcomes of certain situations. As Gladwell notes, “The Power of Context is an environmental argument. It says that behavior is a function of social context” (Gladwell 159). There has been a similar argument about influence of surroundings in earlier days, but it shows little difference from the claim of Gladwell. Early environmentalism emphasizes the importance of fundamental social factors; crime is the result of social injustice, structural economic inequities, racism, and decades of social neglect (Gladwell 159). However, according to the Power of Context, Tipping Point – the critical point in an evolving situation that leads to an irreversible development – may be as simple and trivial. People do not have to solve the big problems or undertake some heroic steps to decrease a crime rate. All they need to do is scrubbing off graffiti and arresting fare-beaters.

Communities are all about groups of individuals who share something in common. This makes going on the internet seem like an odd way to find more communities, form new ones, or strengthen pre-existing ones. The internet however is full of communities. Communities can be based upon religion, location, ethnicity, an interest, or a personal matter. The internet itself is “a global distributed data communications network” (Kirmayer, Raikhel, & Rahimi, 2013, p. 166). This is what makes the internet so full of communities because communication is the key to putting multiple individuals with commonalities into communication, which is the basis of any community. Online communities differ from communities that exists off the web in a couple of

Tonnies discusses the concepts of Community and Society in great detail, from the differences between the two to the wills that fuel them. Perhaps the main argument in the book is the differences between Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft, or Community and Society. Tonnies defines Gemeinschaft as a more intimate grouping of people who rely on each other and have shared goals that places emphasis on the cohesive unit. On the other hand, Gesellschaft is the impersonal grouping mainly found in city and urban areas. Societies are made up of people more interested in personal goals and the places an emphasis on individualism. I agree to an extent that communities are more personal and intimate and can foster stronger relationships within it. Communities require people to be more dependent on each other than cities and metropolitan areas and as a result the chances for tighter bonds are higher. However, present day Society and Community are vastly different than the time it was written. With technology and travel, communities can grow all over as well as virtually and can be present in a society location.

A community is a group of people that share a common or similar characteristic with each other. Some communities can also consist of people living together or practice worship. My essay will include the communities that I am part of which are my dance, school and church communities.

In the Macro level of social work, communities are the primary settings for human behavior. Communities are clusters of people who have something in common. A major social work perspective views communities as entities where citizens can organize or be organized in order to address mutual concerns and improve their over-all quality of life. Throughout this paper I will discuss four conceptual perspectives of communities. I will cover the following, Human Ecology, Socio-Psychological, Structural, and Functionalist.

Communities are affected, and in a sense defined by, forces that affect community members and their space. The forces can range from outside organizations such as the government and large corporations … These components of the community vary infinitely, and thus no two communities are the same; even a given community is not the same over time (Cnaan & Milofsky, p. 1)

Communities can be found everywhere and can be created anywhere. You may be unaware of it, but you are part of a community not only based on your location, but also based on your lifestyle, your religion, your heritage, your education, or your abilities. As Hewitt once said, “Community provides a psychological world and a place of identification for its members.” Identifying yourself with a particular community may be easier than it

The aim of the book is…to diagnose certain tendencies in modern society…and to indicate how the quality of life might be changed radically by the development of a new sense of community (Kaufmann, in Buber, 1970, p. 38).